Letters To The Editor

April 15, 2009

Cut spending

Insatiable government is not just a federal thing; it is alive and well right here on the Peninsula, specifically in Newport News Waterworks and city management. How many times have we had our water rates increased because Newport News needed the money to pursue the King William Reservoir project and water usage was increasing? Water rates have also increased for reasons having nothing to do with water.

Now, Newport News wants yet another increase in the water rate because the King William project is on the rocks and water usage is decreasing. This may come as a surprise to City Manager Randy Hildebrandt and others, but there are many of us just plain citizens around here that get what is happening and we are disgusted and fed up.

Reduce government spending and waste in every department and get the money they think they need that way. I do not want to finance their mistakes and wants. If they have a shortfall in projected monies ---- too bad. That's how it works with individuals. We have to figure a way to reduce spending.

What a change that would be for Newport News and Waterworks; using wisely what they have instead of spending our money on what they think they should have.

Ann Wallace

Yorktown

Explaining stimulus

Walter E. Williams is without a doubt the "ultimate carpenter." I have yet to see anyone write a more accurate description of the stimulus deal and how we are affected by it. He has indeed "hit the nail on the head."

Dennis P. Parker

Newport News

'The American Way'

The Employee Free Choice Act currently before Congress (better known as the "card check" bill) would allow union organizers to bypass currently required secret-ballot elections and directly and quietly approach/solicit company workers to sign petition cards acknowledging their desire to be unionized. Once union organizers acquire a majority of worker signature cards in support of unionization, the National Labor Relations Board would have to certify the union without holding any secret-ballot election, and require the company to enter into a labor agreement with the union.

If passed, this bill would deny companies/businesses the chance to campaign against unionization and would subject workers to harassment and intimidation tactics by union organizers attempting to get them to sign the authorization cards. This is specifically why this bill is being proposed: to bypass a worker's democratic American right to vote by secret ballot without intimidation from either side. Workers' best defense against harassment and intimidation by either union organizers or employers is a secret-ballot election in which neither side knows how any individual worker voted.

It is easy to understand why the unions want this legislation passed, as their membership rolls have declined from 20 percent in 1983 to approximately 12 percent today. This bill is nothing more than smoke-and-mirrors legislation ---- a backdoor attempt by unions to get businesses unionized where the current secret-ballot election process has failed them. The right of workers to have a secret ballot election is and should remain "The American Way."

Ron Fowler

Yorktown

Making Vick pay

The judge currently presiding over the Michael Vick bankruptcy hearing should order Vick to give some of the monies he is allowed to keep to the local animal shelters in recognition of the pain, suffering and death he caused to those poor, innocent dogs he used for sport and profit.